Aurichalcum takes flight from the monastery circling below the crest of the hills and down into the ruins to a good vantage point. The others begin their descent down the bluff and hustle along the road hoping to stop the depraved gnolls. The gnolls do not appear to have noticed the activity.

The hidden dragonette watches as a gnoll stokes the fire and begins heating up a pair of wicked tongs.

From his point of relative safety, Auri looks to see how many gnolls there are and how well armed they are, particularly trying to note any ranged weapons... perhaps he could make a distraction, but doesn't want to get killed by arrowfire doing so.

Aurichalcum sees that three of the gnolls are heading back up to the Battle Market on the mesa above. The seven remaining gnolls are quite well armed with studded leather armor, shields, hooked swords, and short bows.

Dragons are too brave, aka 'the last moments of Aurichalcum the Great'

Despite being the jesters and jokers of the Dragon world (as jokey and jesty as one is when one is a huge fire breathing dragon) the average Brass dragon is still subject to pangs of benign concern that spur it away from endless dialogue and into the realms of actual action.

Auri, seeing the predicament of the poor souls in front of him considers for a moment what his kind would likely do when faced with such a situation, and like his properly sized cousins decides firm action should be taken. Not necessarily by him, but firm nonetheless. Preferrably after some talking, or not. It could be perilous.

With all that in mind, he continues creeping in towards the Gnoll busy heating the iron in the fire, doing his best to keep a low profile as he scampers along the ground to a vantage point where he still might have some cover.

From there, he waits til he is pretty sure none of them are looking, and with a small puff of his cheeks he spits a small flame onto a nearby object, setting it alight...
Spark - cast Somatic.

He then lies really still!

mechanics, couple of Stealth checks and a Sense motive in case... happy for this all to get abstracted, after all thats his 'plan' to cause a distraction, how it plays out... well...

Amir stays silent through the meeting happy to let Karethas and Faelar talk pretty and Kzrira to give "Voice" (if onlly through tlooks) to the patent absurdity of the princess' manner but the theif knew the value of patronage and so he keeps his tongue firmly glued to his head.

As events transpire downhill with the potential for flames and chaos, Amir resolves to stay close to Kzrira with the intention of offering her protection were she to come under assault while her shooting was needed on other targets.

As the group sneaks down the river road Karethas speaks around his own puffing breath, "If we can get close unseen........say 70 feet or so..... I can summon dogs that will be on these.......gnolls before they even......know what hit them.......Sound good?"If necessary, I plan on using Vanish to get within that 70feet. If I can reasonably get there without Vanish, then I will do so. Welcome back Amir!

If you can drop some of you puppies on them, Amir and I can open up with our bows. If Faelar can give us one of those encouraging songs, all the better. And lets see what our dragon friend has planned. I hope he can mess with their heads, but if not, I imagine he is creative enough to pull something off.

I fall in behind everyone else and follow them silently. Once we are at the desired place I lay down on the floor, looking at the Gnolls and captives. Once Kzrira draws her bow and is about to let loose her arrow, I shall start to quietly hum a jolly tune that is uplifting.

Aurichalcum slithers forward and once within range ignites a bush near the gnolls. The gnolls are so engaged in the tong heating and prisoner tormenting that none of them notice at first. Then one glances around and spots the rapidly kindling shrubbery nearby and yells to the others to put it out. This leads to further argumentation until fire builder and three others draw their khopeshes and get to work hacking and beating around the burning bush.

The gnolls are having a little success with smothering the first fire when another starts nearby leading to more consternation from the savage humanoids. Suddenly an insidious whisper is heard in the heads of all nearby, "Hee, hee! I know a secret. Someone is playing my game. Cut free the prisoner and chase them into the field. Let's see what happens. Hee-hee."

The gnolls barely glance up before complying. One of the prisoners is cut lose, rudely pulled up to his feet, and shoved toward the field. He stumbles and then starts running.

Meanwhile from the road, the others see smoke rising up from the edge of the ruins.

Hearing the voice in his head Karethas frowns, "Was that Auri? Can he change his voice like that?.....I don't like this. As I said earlier, there may be more to this set up than we thought. Amir and Faelar, you will be our best defense if we are set upon." Karethas moves furtively out into the field, his hands raised, ready to cast a spell.

Karethas will also move out into the field, trying to be stealthy. If it is clear that it will be too open then he will cast Vanish and double move forward. If he has a chance at stealth, then he will move at half speed, so he doesn't take a penalty and hopefully the distance will help.
STEALTH CHECK: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4
Sigh, these rolls...

the telepathy has a 100 ft limit so only Auri heard the voice. Stealth has half movement so it'll take you ten minutes to reach the gnolls that way. Running will take you a minute. I don't think stealth is particularly effective at this point, considering you are standing in a field at high noon.

Arriving at the edge of the fields, Karethas looks out with a frown on his face. "I guess stealth is out and my minor invisibility spell isn't going to last long enough for me to get across THAT. I guess we just hope that Auri's distraction works?"

Seeing Amir give up on the stealth, I get up and run after him. Once I am within range where I think I can hit the gnolls (<440'), I stop and start firing. Let me know if you want new rolls or should use the old ones.

The first prisoner stumbles into the field moving toward the distant figures running toward him although he doesn't seem aware of that at the moment.

The voice whispers in Auri and the gnoll's heads, "Cut the next one's legs off so he doesn't run so fast and let the last one burn." The gnolls comply by hacking off the next prisoner's legs below the knee before cutting the ropes and shoving him toward the field. The man feebly begins crawling away as the fire spreads behind him and the gnolls.

Rnd 4- runners currently 620 feet from gnolls, 530 from fleeing captive.
The gnolls move away from the fire to a safer vantage point. The legless man only crawls about 20 feet before falling unconscious. The staked man is threatened by the fire.

hrm, I messed up on the math of the guy running toward you. He should be closer.Rnd 5- party is 500 feet from Auri, 260 from fleeing guy.

The gnolls retreat into the ruins beyond the brush fire which now licks at the feet of the bound prisoner who wails in fear and pain. Meanwhile, the released man runs toward the party waving his arms until the ground suddenly opens up beneath him.

I go to head for the fleeing man, but upon seeing the ground start to swallow him I stop myself from moving. I draw my weapon and stand perfectly still, trying to see if I can work out what is going on.

What do I know of the sinking ground, is there any information I could have read that could tell me what it is? If so, what Knowledge check would it be?

Faelar stops short as the sandy pit erupts in tentacles that grab the fallen man and drag him to a tooth filled circular maw!

Know dungeoneering DC 15:

The creature is a subterranean abomination known as a dustdigger or sand kraken that lurks underground waiting for prey. It attacks by collapsing the earth around it and dragging it victims to its mouth with five spiny tentacles.

Karethas stops well short of the Dust digger, his mouth agape. "That thing is big! I can help the man escape, the rest of us should just go around it if we want to save the others." He moves closer to the creature and starts the familiar gestures and words of his Grease spell, which promptly covers the man's clothing in gloppy grease.

Ok, I feel like an idiot, I have been checking the boards fairly regularly and somehow have not seen any of the last 10 posts or so, my bad. Good thing I just clicked wondering why nobody had posted all day.

EDIT - My bad, I thought I was within 30', did not see the map. Reduce the damage by -1/die and the attacks by -1 as I do not get the benefit of the point blank shot.
Attacks should be: 18, 25, 16.
Damage should be: 9, 12, 15 respectively.

Kzrira launches a pair of rapid fire arrows. One lodges at the base of a tentacle and the other hits the creatures core, but is just shy of becoming a mortal wound as the arrow is slowed passing through the sand. Karethas slimes the struggling man and he is able to slip loose of the tentacles for a moment. Amir weighs his options for a heroic rescue.
Amir-roll the dice and we shall see ; )

Meanwhile, Auri frays the rope with his needle like teeth and then moves to the man's legs as the man breaks free to work on his other hand.

Seeing Amir moving to assist the man captured by the dustdigger Karethas yells to his companions, We should focus on saving those prisoners, not on killing this creature." Matching his actions to his words, Karethas moves to skirt around the dustdigger.

Faelar roots for the home team as the tentacled terror lays into the injured man with its four remaining tentacles. The man is flayed into unconsciousness and dragged downward as Kzrira releases another arrow into the star-shaped thing. Amir leaps to grab the sinking man, but falls short and is left holding sand as a departing tentacle slams down beside him then slithers beneath the soil.

Karethas runs to help the surviving man as Auri chews through another bond.

As the dirt settles in the wake of the the dustdigger, Kzrira continues pounding arrows into the ground, but the creature is gone. Karethas runs forward in the hopes of saving the remaining casualties as Auri gnaws through the remaining bonds.

What is left to shoot? I will turn and start hitting Gnolls if there are any in sight.

and that about says it all :)

Amir gets back to his feet and returns to Kzrira who peers around ready to fire at any sign of trouble, but all is quiet for the moment as Faelar's song trails off.

Karethas continues toward Auri and the rescued captive who staggers to his feet. He is a muscular Garundi man who introduces himself as Antar the Lion as he thanks the tiny dragon. He moves over to the fallen body of his legless companion to see if he yet lives.